Hunting and Feeding
Because of its high ratio of surface area to body volume, the Etruscan shrew has an extremely fast metabolism and must eat 1.5–2.0 times its body weight in food per day. It feeds up to 25 times per day, mostly on various invertebrates (insects, their larvae, earthworms, etc.), as well as small vertebrates (the young of frogs, lizards and rodents), and can hunt prey of nearly the same body size as itself. It prefers species with a soft, thin exoskeleton, so avoids ants when given a choice. Grasshoppers, where common, are often regular prey. It kills large prey by a bite to the head and eats it immediately, but takes small insects back to its nest. When hunting, the Etruscan shrew mostly relies on its sense of touch rather than vision, and may even run into its food at night.
Read more about this topic: Etruscan Shrew
Famous quotes containing the words hunting and/or feeding:
“They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs’ dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“There are times when parenthood seems nothing but feeding the mouth that bites you.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)